A lone Quadrantid meteorseen through thin cloud streaks below the Big Dipper during the 2016 Quadrantid meteor shower in the night of January 3, 2016. A very faint and distant aurora adds a green glow to the northern horizon. I shot this as part of a 600-frame time lapse that captured several other meteors, including a very bright bolide, but none were obviously Quadrantids coming from the radiant low in the north. This is a 10-second exposure at f/2 with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200, shot from home looking northeast. Clouds added the natural glows around the stars of the Big Dipper.
A bright bolide streaks beside the Big Dipper during the 2016 Quadrantid meteor shower in the night of January 3, 2016. However, the bolide was heading down to the horizon toward the radiant so this is not a Quadrantid meteor. Pity! It did leave a long-lasting “smoke” train that persisted for another 90 frames, or 15 minutes. I shot this as part of a 600-frame time lapse that captured several other meteors, including this very bright bolide, but only a couple were obviously Quadrantids coming from the radiant low in the north. This is a 10-second exposure at f/2 with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200, shot from home looking northeast.
A fairly bright aurora display kicks up to the east, as Leo and Jupiter (on the horizon) rise in the east, in the late night hours of New Year’s Eve, Dec 31, 2015. The stars of the Big Dipper and Ursa Major are at top left. This is a 2.5-second exposure at f/1.6 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens, and at ISO 6400 with the Nikon D750, as a test of high-cadence rate time-lapse shooting, taken from home.